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This article was first published 10 years ago

What will be the future of Berkshire without Buffett?

Last updated on: May 20, 2013 09:11 IST

Image: A Berkshire Hathaway souvenir USB memory stick cartoon figure of Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett is for sale at a cocktail reception hosted by Berkshire-owned Borsheim's jewelry store on the weekend of the company's annual meeting in Omaha.
Photographs: Rick Wilking/Reuters Jonathan Stempel and Jennifer Ablan.

Warren Buffett gave the most extensive comments to date about the future of Berkshire Hathaway Inc after he is gone, saying he still expects the conglomerate to be a partner of choice for distressed companies.

Buffett, 82, also defended his plan to install his son, Howard, who has little investing experience, as non executive chairman, saying the younger man's role would be to ensure that Berkshire had the right CEO in place.

During the financial crisis and its immediate aftermath, Berkshire helped prop up a number of companies, among them blue-chips such as General Electric and Goldman Sachs Buffett's investments were viewed by many shareholders as a seal of approval from one of the world's most respected businessmen.

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What will be the future of Berkshire without Buffett?

Image: Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett talks with a shareholder before the company's annual meeting in Omaha.
Photographs: Rick Wilking/Reuters

Short-seller Doug Kass, invited by Buffett to Berkshire's annual meeting on Saturday to offer contrarian points of view, asked whether a successor would have the same heft. Buffett said it would not matter.

"Berkshire is the 800 number when there is really some panic in the markets, and people really need significant capital," Buffett said.

"If you come to a day when the Dow has fallen 1,000 points a day for a few days and the tide has gone out and you find some naked swimmers, those naked swimmers ... will call Berkshire," he added.

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What will be the future of Berkshire without Buffett?

Image: A huge picture of Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett looks over shareholders swarming the exhibit floor where companies owned by Berkshire display and sell their products, at the company's annual meeting in Omaha.
Photographs: Rick Wilking/Reuters

Whoever ultimately takes over Berkshire will run a conglomerate that employs more than 280,000 people in dozens of businesses worldwide, covering everything from ice cream to insurance and retail to railroads.

Kass later asked what qualified Howard Buffett, a 58-year-old farmer and philanthropist, to step in as Berkshire's non-executive chairman when his father is gone. The elder Buffett insisted his son was ideal for the task at hand.

"He has no illusions at all of running the business. He won't get paid for running the business," Warren Buffett said. "He'll only have to think about whether the board ... needs to change the CEO."

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What will be the future of Berkshire without Buffett?

Image: Berkshire Hathaway shareholders listen as Chairman Warren Buffett (L) and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, seen on a video screen, answer questions at the company's annual meeting in Omaha.
Photographs: Rick Wilking/Reuters

As in the past, Buffett talked about his successor as CEO without actually identifying him.

Speculation usually focuses on a small group of top Berkshire executives, among them insurance boss Ajit Jain and railroad leader Matt Rose.

One long-time Buffett-watcher said the legendary investor seemed to handle the pressure from Kass and others well.

"Buffett hasn't broken much new ground, but he's handled Doug's question well ... and, as always, reinforced the Berkshire culture every chance he's had," said Jeff Matthews, founder of hedge fund Ram Partners LP and a Buffett biographer.

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What will be the future of Berkshire without Buffett?

Image: Berkshire Hathaway shareholders wait in the CenturyLink arena for the second session to begin at the company's annual meeting in Omaha.
Photographs: Rick Wilking/Reuters

Economic Indicator

Berkshire's breadth means that its performance is seen as a barometer for the broader economy.

On Saturday, Buffett said he still stands by the actions taken by the U.S. Federal Reserve to stimulate the economy, even as he cautioned that the program could be "very inflationary."

"This is like watching a good movie, and I do not know the end," he said. "We have benefited significantly, and the country has benefited significantly, by what the Fed has done."

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What will be the future of Berkshire without Buffett?

Image: Richard Harmon (L), a Berkshire Hathaway shareholder, poses in an opening in a wall behind a picture frame held by a photograph of Berkshire Chairman Warren Buffet, at the company's annual meeting in Omaha.
Photographs: Rick Wilking/Reuters

Buffett also endorsed the last four years of deficit spending by President Barack Obama's administration, saying it is a problem to get off that program but much less of a problem than if the government had followed a strict austerity program instead.

"We are seeing some recovery in housing prices which has psychological effects," he said. "(By the next annual meeting) I think we will have moved forward...I don't think there will be a surge of any sort, but I don't think we will stall."

Earlier Saturday, one of Buffett's top lieutenants said things were picking up but could improve further.

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What will be the future of Berkshire without Buffett?

Image: Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett waves his ukulele with The Quebe Sisters Band at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha.
Photographs: Rick Wilking/Reuters

"It feels like a 2 per cent economy. If we want to see GDP ...

What will be the future of Berkshire without Buffett?

Image: A Berkshire Hathaway shareholder hold a fake dollar bill with the face of billionaire financier and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett during the kick-off celebration at the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha.
Photographs: Carlos Barria/Reuters

On Saturday he said he disagreed with the recent guidance from the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission that lets companies release material information on Twitter. Some see that as a threat to Berkshire's press release service, Business Wire.

"The key to disclosure is accuracy and simultaneity ... I do not want it, if I am buying Wells Fargo (WFC.N), to keep hitting up their web page and hoping I'm not 10 seconds behind someone else for some important announcement," he said.

He also stuck by one of Berkshire's more controversial investments, its recent acquisition of a number of newspapers.

The annual meeting crowd applauded when CNBC anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin asked a critical question about the stable of papers.

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What will be the future of Berkshire without Buffett?

Image: Billionaire Warren Buffett, wearing a traditional tikka or a red mark on the forehead, speaks during a news conference in Bangalore.
Photographs: Reuters

"It's not going to move the needle in Berkshire ... we are buying the papers at very, very low prices with (regard to) current earnings," Buffett said, adding that he expected to meet or beat a 10 percent rate of return, after-tax.

Yet as much as investors want to hear about Berkshire's growth potential and the state of the economy, some also attend the meeting just for a good laugh.

The meeting opened, as it does every year, with a video montage. This year's included a duet between Buffett and singer Jon Bon Jovi and a take-off on the TV series "Breaking Bad."

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What will be the future of Berkshire without Buffett?

Image: Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett holds a Dairy Queen ice cream bar and answers reporters' questions as his wanders the company trade show before the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha.
Photographs: Rick Wilking/Reuters

Some of the best comedy, though, usually comes in the verbal sparring between Buffett and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger over the course of the day.

The two are close - they shared an oversize box of peanut brittle during the meeting - but Munger's acerbic tongue pops out from time to time.

"I come to see Charlie Munger needle Warren Buffett - only he can," said Sherman Silber, a doctor and shareholder.

(Writing by Ben Berkowitz; editing by Bob Burgdorfer and Matthew Lewis)


Source: REUTERS
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